


Tokeitō

by errichii



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Kara no Kyoukai | The Garden of Sinners
Genre: Other, this is going to sound so hogwarts it's impossible
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-05-30 04:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15088982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/errichii/pseuds/errichii
Summary: The rise of three mages, their goals in achieving the Root, and the tragic fall afterwards. (PRE-MAHOUTSUKAI, KNK & FATE)





	1. the bells of england

**WINTER, DECEMBER 10**   
**LONDON, ENGLAND**

 

  _‘Please don’t go!’_ rang Aoko’s words in Tōko’s head. They almost made her headache worse.

  London, England. She prayed that it wouldn’t rain. As the red double-deckered bus whizzed past various tourist attractions and monuments, the young lady huddled closer to her seat by the window with her baggage nestled close to her by her feet. Had nothing happened back in Japan, she would have thought of sending her younger sister a nice postcard with the most scenic picture of Big Ben on it and tell her all about her horrid experience in that blasted Heathrow Airport. They didn’t call it the worst airport ever for nothing, and she experienced it firsthand for the second time in her life.

  England, England, wet, soddy England. _It’s good to be here,_ she thought, and besides, there was no other place where she could seek refuge in. It helped that she prepared herself extensively for her stay – she brushed up on her English prior (and made sure, _extremely_ sure, that her Japanese accent wouldn’t lapse into any word she would potentially say), she obtained her visa through a lawyer from the Mages’ Association, and just in case anything else were to happen unfavourably in Japan, she had thought of obtaining permanent residency. In a way, England was quite similar to Japan, if one doesn’t mind the rain and the bland cuisine.

  The Clock Tower was expecting the eldest Aozaki child, and her destination was the British Museum.

  Aozaki Tōko alighted from the bus with much difficulty – there was no porter to help her carry her things, thus she had to do it herself. The British Museum was no hotel, which earned her a questioning look from the driver as he saw her lug her baggage about with a few grunts. Wasn’t his business, he reckoned, and besides, there were tourists who wanted to see the London Bridge. He hadn’t the time to help the girl at all, even if she looked as if she really needed a hand as she trudged through the snow with all her might. All that mattered to Tōko was that she was finally there, and everything else would take care of themselves.

  Upon entering the British Museum, the temperature got thankfully warmer, but there was the unfortunate question of the wheels of her red roller bag being stuck with snow. She shook her head a little to get the snow out of her hair, dusted her arms and clothes, but it only served to make a mess at the foyer, earning her a displeased look from the security guard. From the looks of it, she wasn’t a local, and the security assumed that she wouldn’t know a lick of English, but he tried anyways in an awfully broken attempt to get her to stop.

  “Miss,” he said, “your things. Here.” To top it off, he pointed at the belongings storage, all with their laminated tags and numbers and shelves, but his finger was pointing at it so excessively that Tōko almost felt more miserable over the fact that she was ill-received. She was shivering cold despite being all hooded up, gloved and socked, and the worst part was that due to a sudden hunch that she should start pinching pennies, she ate nothing at all in the airport, which made her extremely hungry to boot.

  “…These are important things,” Tōko said dismally in perfect English. “I’m sorry. I can’t have them away from me for even a second.”

  A look of brief relief crossed the security guard’s features. “As it is, Miss,” he explained, “the museum can’t have any bit of large luggage about within the premises. It could cause quite a few misunderstandings. I’m terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but these are the regulations of the British Museum.”

  The chill must’ve addled Tōko’s sense of reasoning a great deal, because it was only then that she realized that she would look like some sort of exhibit thief with her luggage being rolled about. The more she rolls that thing around, the more patrons would start feeling rather uncomfortable with having a teenage girl making so much noise during their bouts of admiring artwork and trying to inject various interpretations as to the meanings of certain works that were enigmatic in their own rights. She looked at her baggage, then at the belongings storage and sighed tiredly.

  “It really can’t be helped…?” she asked.

  “I’m sorry, Miss,” he said, “but not to worry, security here is very tight. We’ll have to get your name and we’ll assign you a number so you can collect your belongings.”

  Tōko looked even more distressed.

  “However,” the security guard said, “I would like to ask regarding your duration of stay in the British Museum. If so, arrangements can be made. How long is your visit, Miss?”

  All of a sudden, it occurred to Tōko that this wasn’t the procedures of an ordinary security guard. The Clock Tower was expecting her, so they had to put someone there to see if she would come or not. They knew that the eldest Aozaki child was of course, nothing but a mere teenager, and that she would come to England alone. Snow-covered, red-faced, cold and hungry, she could only mumble her answer to the guard’s statement as she pressed her legs together for more warmth.

  “…For the d-duration,” she stammered, the chill still lingering, “of my studies.”

  The security guard nodded. “Thank you. We are expecting someone else as well. Can I trouble you to see to him if possible, Miss?”

  “There’s someone else comi-?”

  The presence of a magus is not easily concealable, especially when one has cultivated his or her Art for numerous years. What stopped Tōko from continuing her sentence was the very presence of a strong magus just right outside the entrance of the British Museum, and despite wanting to stay in the museum for a little longer to warm up, curiosity and alarm bit at her enough to make her take a white umbrella from the umbrella rack and run out of the premises to the snowy streets of London. She snapped it open, looked around her, and at once, she froze in her tracks.

  There was a man in black in the distance walking slowly towards her in the snow. He was tall – imposing, even – and he walked straight and sure with no heed to the chills of the London winter. He was indeed the very picture of perpetual melancholy and rigidity, and to look at him was almost heavy on Tōko’s end. His presence and appearance radiated years and years of cultivation – centuries, if she were to take a guess, and as soon as he was at least five steps away from her, he stopped.

  Tōko had to look up to see him properly.

  His expression, severe and somber, stayed constant as he looked down at her. There was a certain stillness to his person, a stillness that she could only make out to be in its finest definition; sans motion, sans thought. The winter wind blew past them along with the snow that followed, and Tōko wondered whether it was alright to breathe or not as she looked up at his wrinkled face, his unkempt hair and his black longcoat blowing in the wind.

 

 

  Past exhibits of intricately carved statues, well-sought after paintings and pieces of abstract art, the seemingly unassuming security guard led the two expected ones deeper into the British Museum – deeper in, deeper down.

 _Had we really been expected,_ Tōko thought sourly, _we would’ve been at least better received._ There were far too many secrets to hide in the world of the magi, and to be born in a family that had a rich tradition served to be a double-edged sword to her person. Her entire life consisted of being holed up in a town for a number of years, then holed up in London for a number of years, then holed up in Reien until her prime, and now, to be holed up within the British Museum for God knows how long. Time immemorial, probably? She shuddered at the thought – surely, she didn’t want to live as long as the enigmatic Director of the Association. Only God knows how old the Director is, and no one’s even seen him or her.

  The man in the black longcoat looked over at Tōko, who was carrying her two bags of luggage painstakingly as soon as they descended down a flight of stairs. He did not lift a finger to help – probably because he sensed the young girl’s silly bit of will over being strong enough to lift her own luggage without assistance, thus he walked ahead of her to give her more room to lift them. She heaved several sighs and panted as she held onto the railings with her right and carried her bags with her left – truly, she thought that the transition to her sanctum would’ve been easy.

  Well, in that, she was horribly wrong.

  “I am most terribly sorry, Miss Aozaki, Mr. Araya,” said the security guard. “Our existence had to be concealed in the best ways possible, thus my earlier conduct. The both of you are expected in the Department of Universal Research, along with another from the Alba family. I will be collecting him soon as well, right after I show you to the main hall.”

  “I-It’s a-alright,” Tōko said, shivering still. “I-I understand…”

   Oh, if _only!_ If _only_ she was honestly as understanding as she sounded! If only she could be as quiet as Araya (and that was his name, wasn’t it?), because she was at the verge of yelling and screaming in frustration and irritation. She didn’t get on that plane only to feel hungry, tired and cold. She expected a proper welcome, not a secretive one. She expected at least _someone_ to help her with her bags, for starters, but she reckoned that even if she were to ask Araya, he would be the type to just simply look at her and go on his way.

  The long descent of steps were thankfully over, and with a few knocks on the wooden door  that was found at the end of it and a spell, the security guard opened the door to reveal nothing but a glimpse of a vast hall. There were people walking about with books and things, there were people talking to each other, discussing here and there about anything and everything. There were professors and teachers and students, there were old mages and young neophytes, and all at once, Tōko was overwhelmed.

  “This is the main hall,” the security guard motioned. “Please feel free to look around and speak to whomever you wish. I will have to go back up to the museum to collect that said member of the Alba family, and then we will join you shortly.”

  For once, the man named Araya spoke.

  “Alright,” he said, his tone low and severe.

  The security guard left despite not knowing what _‘wakatta’_ meant, and it surprised Tōko to know that Araya was Japanese just like her. She looked at him once again and decided not to mingle around too much, as she completely didn’t know anyone in the entirety of the Collegium personally. Kuonji Alice was still stuck in Reien, and if things go well, she’d be with Aoko in Misaki Town, not all the way in London.

  “Excuse me,” Tōko said in her native tongue, “you’re Japanese?”

  Araya looked at her with the same somber expression. “Yes. You must be the daughter of the Aozaki.”

  “Ah, yes,” Tōko said, her voice less shaky due to the gradual warmth of the indoors getting to her. “I’m Aozaki Tōko, the eldest.” In a way, she wasn’t _the_ daughter – she was _one_ of the daughters, but she wasn’t about to complain just because he overlooked Aoko’s existence.

  “Araya Sōren. The eldest,” Araya said, “yet still very young.”

  Tōko almost wished she was a little older at that very moment. “Age isn’t a factor in academics, you know,” she said. “And besides, we’ll be in the same department, so we’ll be seeing each other a lot, along with that Alba family member. I wonder what kind of person he is...”

  “Oh!” came a voice from behind them. It was a voice that was light and mighty cheery, as if it belonged to a celebrity who had put on too many airs for a press conference. Tōko and Araya looked back to see as to whom that voice belonged to, and what greeted their sights was nothing as to what they ever expected.

  Bright, dapper and charming, they could only assume that the person who said that _‘Oh!’_ was none other than the Alba family member that was mentioned to be joining them in the Department of Universal Research. Even indoors, the Alba family member wore a flashy red top hat with an equally red long coat, as if he wanted to make some kind of statement. In his gloved hands was a cane, and his long, blond hair cascaded down to his waist. With a bright smile that demanded every bit of attention, he took off his hat and bowed before them with a flourish, which greatly surprised Tōko even more than it should have.

  She didn’t know what Araya could’ve been thinking, but the Alba family member was the very definition of, for lack of a better term and a better song, ‘putting on the Ritz.’

  “My!” the man said in clear tones, all in English. “So these are my Japanese friends in Universal Research! We are going to have a lovely time together, aren’t we? We’ll have so much to learn and I’ll have so much to teach, especially to this young lady here…”

  Tōko and Araya could only stare at him – on Tōko’s side, her face was painted with an expression of pure disbelief. On Araya’s, it was unsurprisingly the same expression that he wore since he entered the museum.

  “Oh,” the man said again, “I forgot. You two are Japanese – you must have quite a hard time understanding me! Forgive me, forgive me! Miscommunication – what a horrid thing, isn’t it? Let me see…I have studied quite a bit of Japanese myself! To greet, to greet…”

  “Please don’t say it…!” Tōko whispered to herself, or to Araya, or to no one in particular. She understood everything perfectly, and she didn’t want to hear a butcherization of the Japanese language anytime soon. Araya seemed to take the man’s actions and words in stride, and the Alba family member took a deep breath, placed a hand over his ascot and spoke.

  It was akin to the apocalypse.

  “Ahem. _O-hayou go-zai-ma-su, watashi no to-mo-da-chi! Watashi wa Cornelius Alba, yoroshiku onegaishimasu!”_ Cornelius Alba said in a flourish. He looked mighty proud of himself as he said those, and from the looks and sounds of it, he truly believed that he had a very natural Japanese accent. To his credit, he practiced.

  “…”

  “…”

  It wasn’t morning. It was evening.

  “Oh, just _look_ at the both of you! Aren’t you amazed?” Cornelius Alba laughed, obviously very satisfied with his verbal performance. “But goodness, my dear – you don’t look very good! The cold has gotten to you, hasn’t it? And that luggage; oh _no,_ let me see what I can do. You there,” he said, finally directing his complete attention to Araya, “you should have helped such a young girl with such heavy things. Come now, she looks like she’s going to _faint!_ What’s your name, my dear?”

  Tōko managed to find her voice again amidst the shock. “I-I’m Tōko-“ she began in English, but another gasp from Cornelius Alba made her discontinue her introductions.

  “You speak English!” Cornelius Alba exclaimed. “My dear girl, you speak _English!”_

  “Y-Yes,” Tōko said, “and picking up from where I was…I’m Tōko Aozaki, and the man beside me is Sōren Araya.”

  Cornelius Alba’s brows furrowed at her words.

  “…You might have to repeat that again, my dear,” he said, sounding completely at a loss. “Correct me if I’m wrong…so your name is _Though_ -kou?”

  Helplessly, Tōko looked at Araya. True to her expectations, he didn’t bother.

  “No, no,” she corrected, “it’s _Tōko-“_

  _“Toe_ -ko?” Cornelius Alba tried again.

  “No, I-“ she said, and then sighed. “It’s Tōko, like… _Touko._ Yes, _Tou_ ko.”

  “Tou-ko,” Cornelius Alba said. “Tou-ko. Yes, I think I have your name now! Tou-ko. Isn’t that right? Yes, I suppose so! You can pronounce Cornelius well, yes? How about you?” he asked, as he redirected his attention to Araya. _“Sore_ -en Araya. Sore. _Sore_ -en.”

  Araya’s face was the very picture of perpetual stillness. If Cornelius had ever hit a spot, it was completely unnoticeable, and Tōko couldn’t help but feel awkward for the both of them.

  “…Oh, _never_ mind,” Cornelius said. “You don’t even speak anyways,” he complained. He tutted a little as he regarded Araya with a frown. “He doesn’t talk much, does he, dear Touko?”

  “Not much, I admit,” Tōko sighed.

  “But he will have to speak one of these days!” Cornelius said jovially. “Come, come! My belongings will arrive with me soon, but what you need, Touko dear, is a nice bit of help and a laugh! All the way from Japan…oh, you poor thing! Mount Fuji is lovely this time of year, isn’t it? Tell me, it is, isn’t it?”

  Truth be told, Tōko never went to Mount Fuji.

  “I mean,” she joked, “I don’t live there, but I’ve seen plenty of postcards.”

  “Of course, of course!” Cornelius smiled. “To cheer you up, my dear, I’ll conjure up my friend to keep you company. Come! My Doberman will walk us around and delight you. I hope you like dogs, Touko – he loves anyone who is kind to him.”

  With a snap of Cornelius’s fingers, the Art was weaved, and materializing right at Cornelius’s feet was the Doberman familiar that he mentioned – a lovely black hound that barked excitedly at his master. Tōko gasped in delight – she had thought that she was beyond being surprised at the littlest things, but being treated kindly after a hellish experience was very welcome to her all the same. The Doberman went over to Tōko and Araya, sniffed at them a little and stayed by their side, particularly at Tōko’s.

  “And now, for your things! As a magus, you ought to know that anything is possible within these walls! Snap your fingers,” Cornelius said, and with that, he snapped them, “and your bags will float!”

  “O-Of course I knew that!” Tōko said, but she laughed all the same.

  “You need no guide, my friends,” Cornelius proudly said as he walked on with Tōko’s bags, prompting her to follow him. Araya too simply had no choice in the matter – he observed how things were despite not knowing the language, thus he followed the only countryman he knew within his short time in the Association. “So long as I am here, you will find that this is something like a second home to me, and it will soon be a second home to the both of you as well! Get warmed up, unpack and get settled, and soon, we shall do wonderful bits of research!”

  A chime resounded throughout the hall, and the three of them looked up to realize that it was none other than the bells, the bells, the bells of the clock that was Big Ben. They rang and chimed about, and if anything, it made the smile on Cornelius’s face wider. All the while during her stay in London, even as a child, Tōko found that at that very moment, it was the only time where she felt even the slightest bit of happiness upon hearing the bells of the clock chime, and even Araya, who said almost nothing during their meeting, regarded the bells quietly as something that could possibly be a welcome to them.

  “It’s the bells!” Tōko found herself saying excitedly. “Cornelius, it’s the bells!”

  “Of course, dear Touko!” Cornelius laughed. “It’s London! You’ll hear them quite a lot from now on, and believe me, you might be filled to the brim with utmost happiness at the moment, but as soon as next week, you’d wish they’d never ring at all!”


	2. bridging

 

**WINTER, DECEMBER 12, 1989**  
**NORWICH STUDENT DORMITORY | CLOCK TOWER, BRITISH MUSEUM**  
**BLOOMSBURY, LONDON, ENGLAND**

 

  It all seemed like a dream to Tōko.

  Memories of the previous night evoked feelings within the young magus that she couldn’t even comprehend – a scrumptious dinner of pies, freshly baked breads, mashed potatoes with the best gravy she’s ever had, a prime roast, éclairs that melted in the mouth and more. To be dazzled again by the simplest magic, courtesy of Cornelius Alba, was something that she’d never imagined herself to do, and yet parlour magic made her clap her hands and laugh like a little girl the previous day. Tōko was far from little in her own opinion – she was a young lady of twenty years, and she was perfectly capable of handling herself just fine without having to be surprised over anything else in the world. She thought she’d seen it all.

  But as she woke up at precisely 7 in the morning in her private rooms in the Norwich Student Dormitory, she still found herself utterly breathless at the very fact that everything that she had experienced the previous day was definitely not a dream.

  In her naïveté, probably because she was incredibly out of sorts due to the horrid weather and travel conditions that she was subjected to, magic had worked its wondrous ways on her just like how they worked in fairytales. Charisma easily won her over, the presence of friends made her much less alone, and it made her want to stay and never leave. Something along the lines of: ‘may the ball never end, may this night never end!’ crossed her mind in light of the previous night, where the warm welcome for the neophytes made her feel as if she truly belonged.

 _But then again,_ she thought, as she was wrapped up in the most comfortable of sheets within the warmth of her room, _neither Araya nor Cornelius seemed to be neophytes._ They were indeed seasoned mages, thus they must’ve gotten a special exception to enter the Association.

  _Questions later,_ Tōko assumed. Blearily, she got up and rubbed her eyes, and all at once, she gave a little noise at her bare feet having touched the cold floor of her room. It was that squeamish _‘bathroom-tiles-at-night’_ syndrome all over again – never had she thought that it would’ve been the same in England, and she gave a small groan of irritation. She patted at her bedside table for her glasses and put them on – they didn’t make the world any clearer, but they made her head a lot more muted than its usual forced alertness. A lone Motorola answering machine sat on her desk, which blinked about until she pressed on the button. Tōko ignored the clear, monotonous automated pleasantries that the device emitted and listened to the sole message that it recorded.

  The first thing she heard was Aoko’s voice.

_‘Hey, I know you’re there! Um…just asking, I’m just asking…how’s the trip? Did you see London Bridge? Or Big Ben – that huge clock? There must’ve been a lot to see, huh…? A-Anyways, I’m just checking up on you – if you want to answer, I’ll be here and waiting! If you don’t want to, that’s okay too, so…’_

  A pause.

  _‘…So,_ onee-san, _I’ll be thinking of you!’_

  Tōko didn’t want to hate Aoko – she really didn’t. She was in London for a reason, which was all because of Aoko, but did she truly hate her younger sister? She was better – she was certainly better than Aoko, who did nothing but have fun with their parents and had a normal life of her own. She was better – she was _‘twenty in six.’_ She was infinitely better, _better,_ so _much_ better. It was indeed pure jealousy and resentment that made Tōko pack her bags and leave dreary Misaki Town, and the words that she said to Aoko that day before she left were so scathing that she was almost certain that Aoko would hate her. _It was the final nail,_ she had thought. _Aoko would hate me for sure._

  _For sure._

  Yet, there Aoko was. Aoko, even though she didn’t board a plane to London, was still there with her wherever she went. Aoko’s voice resounded in her head and through the answering machine, and slowly, the elder Aozaki sister sat down to press the button again. The message repeated itself, and so were the questions in Tōko’s head. _Why? Why bother? Why bother thinking about making amends for something that you didn’t do, you stupid girl?_

  It would be night in Japan, probably. A message wouldn’t do, and the research year only starts the week later. How her jealousy burns to this day! How her resentment grows! She had sworn to discontinue all contact with her younger sister, who was only good in blowing things up and tactlessly using words all over the place, but the sincerity in Aoko’s voice pricked at Tōko’s heart, so much so to the point where she found that her hand hovered over the phone.

  She wanted to tell her sister that she was alright.

  She wanted to tell her sister that she was sorry.

 

 

  She didn’t.

 

 

  “Oh, there you are, dear Touko! You look so much better now! I trust you’re feeling well, my dear? I was just heading for the reading room – would you care to accompany me?”

   Amidst the halls, Tōko nearly jolted in shock at the sudden sound of Cornelius’s voice – certainly, it wasn’t at all unwelcome, but it was unexpected all the same.

  “The reading room?” she asked, parroting Cornelius’s words. “You mean the British Museum Reading Room? We’re going upstairs?”

  “All the same, whether it’s a reading room or a library, it has a plethora of books, Touko,” Cornelius pointed out. She noted his sudden change of attire – his straight, long blond hair was tied in a low ponytail, and he was clad in a blue collared shirt, a black vest and matching trousers. The ridiculous top hat that he wore the previous day wasn’t on his head, and Tōko found that it was much easier to look at him with him being dressed as if he wasn’t going to the circus. His cane, however, still remained in his hand, and Tōko decided to give her praise where it’s due.

  “That’s true,” she said. “You look nice today, Cornelius.”

  “I didn’t really have much time to put something together to wear, given how much we’ve celebrated last night,” he smiled. “Something simple wouldn’t hurt. The research year starts next week, so we have all the time in the world to do whatever we want, whether it’s for recreation or personal studies! Or…ah.”

  Cornelius looked deep in thought for a moment.

  “Touko,” he said, “you don’t actually know how to get around here, do you?”

  “…Admittedly, no,” Tōko sighed. “But I’d love to follow you up to the reading room – I was actually thinking of getting a postcard and a few pictures.”

  “A _postcard?”_ Cornelius asked, arching an eyebrow. “Are postcards popular in Japan?”

  “Huh?”

  “Goodness me,” he said, “postcards! Of course, they sell them a lot upstairs, but in my opinion, should you want to call home, there’s always, of course, my dear Touko, a _phone?”_

  That actually sounded pretty silly from her end, and Tōko couldn’t help but admit it.

  “My sister wanted pictures,” she lamely said, “and it’s a pretty long story, but I don’t think I want to talk to her anytime soon.”

  “Touko,” Cornelius said mildly, “if there is one thing that I should tell you, it’s that there are no secrets regarding the families of magic within the Association. The _Ah-oh-zah-kee_ family matters are no stranger to anyone, not even me – I truly am sorry about how things turned out, especially when it’s completely understandable that you don’t wish to talk about it-“

  The spiel of words stopped upon hearing Tōko laugh. It wasn’t a sudden laugh – ever since Cornelius started pronouncing the name _‘Aozaki,’_ despite the horrid topic, the young lady was alternating between getting angry all over again and laughing. She fought to keep a laugh in for the longest time, but ultimately, she burst into fits of laughter right in front of Cornelius, who thought that he must’ve hit a sore spot.

  “Oh no,” Cornelius blinked, “it’s worse than I thought, isn’t it?”

  “No, no!” Tōko laughed. “No – _haha!_ No, it’s…it’s the way you said my last name!”

  “Wasn’t it _always_ that way?” he asked, surprised. _“Ah-oh-zah-kee.”_

  “Yes, but why stress _every_ syllable?” Tears were forming at her eyes, and her sides started to hurt. “Cornelius, honestly…!”

  “Well, it wouldn’t hurt to have an easier-sounding name,” he huffed dramatically. “The name **Alba** rings with power and ease – you can feel the weight in it, can’t you? But _Ah-oh_ – Touko, my dear, _please,_ stop laughing, people are watching…!”

  “Alright, alright, I’ll – _hahahaha…!”_

  Eventually, Tōko stopped her fits of laughter and leveled herself physically. Her low-heeled boots gave her good leverage on the ground, and her black coat kept her nice and warm; it was a good start to the day in the end. If there were no secrets within the Association, then it really couldn’t be helped – there were other families of magic that had their own closet of skeletons, and she reckoned that there were those who had it far worse than a mere case of succession dispute. Probably, the famed Tōsakas would get it too. She straightened herself up and put an easy smile on her face to reassure both herself and him, and she nodded in acknowledgement.

  “I understand, Cornelius,” Tōko said. “That’s the main reason I’m here, as everybody knows. The only thing I can do is prove my worth, and I know that I can. I’ll do my best here and see if the wind blows favourably – I won’t go back with my tail between my legs.”

  Cornelius smiled warmly at that. “That’s the spirit, my dear. Every magus must have their chin up. Stiff upper lip, as we always say in England! Now, Touko, let’s get ourselves our fill of breakfast, some good reading, and those pictures and postcards you want. Another question, my dear – have you tried the tikka masala?”

 

 

  As they passed by the painting of a young Anne Boleyn in the museum while on the way for breakfast, Tōko learned a great many things from Cornelius, who spoke of the Association as if it was his second home.

  “It may look wonderful to most, and it truly is,” Cornelius said somberly, “but there are too many families and there are too many things happening at the same time. When I was an Enforcer, my kind was not looked upon very favourably.”

  “Enforcer?” Tōko blinked, finding it quite hard to imagine Cornelius as one. _“You?”_

  “Indeed, Touko,” he said, with a little hint of pride in his voice. “As it was, and as it is, I was considered one of the biggest troubles in the Association, along with my kind. Well, that was when I was your age – pardon me, my dear, but how old are you now?”

  “20, this coming August,” Tōko answered.

  “Then it was around your age, yes,” Cornelius nodded. He took the time to hang around an Egyptian coin exhibit, and Tōko gave it a glance before she paid attention to him again. “That was quite a while, wasn’t it? I’m 42 now – of course, I don’t look it, do I? I take great care of my skin and looks, and of course, there _is_ magic that helps with that…”

  Tōko blinked.

  “…42?” she said.

  “42, yes, Touko! Hard to believe, isn’t it? That’s what happens when you take care of your looks very well – oh, speaking of looks, isn’t that Araya, my dear?”

  Both Cornelius and Tōko looked over to see none other than the imposing figure that was Araya Sōren, who was walking towards the Egyptian exhibits to reach the exit of the museum. There was a great deal of miscommunication between him and Cornelius, and Tōko always had to play the reluctant interpreter the previous night. It could be that Cornelius was far too charismatic for Araya’s tastes, and that Tōko could very well be the only person who could bear talking to the enigma that was him, thus she pointed over at Araya with a thumb and looked at Cornelius.

  “Can he join us for breakfast, Cornelius?” she asked.

  “Provided if he bothers to say something _nice,”_ Cornelius sighed. “He’s all alone anyways, the poor man. Get him on board, Touko, there’s a dear.”

  That was her cue to get Araya’s attention, so Tōko went up to him with a sudden speed that made Araya stop in his tracks. He looked down at her – pretty literally, due to her small stature – and said nothing for a few seconds. As if he finally found his voice again, he inclined his head into a small nod and acknowledged her.

  “Aozaki,” he said.

  In Japanese, Tōko said: “Want to go for breakfast?”

 

 

  The entirety of Great Russell Street was still covered with snow, but it was much better than the previous day, in where it had snowed so much that Tōko almost thought that she’d die of cold had she not gotten to the museum earlier.

  It was an odd sight to behold within the vicinity; although there was a combination of practicing magi and ordinary people out and about, it didn’t change any bit of the similar confusion that emerged in their thoughts. The sight of a severe-looking man in black, a dapper gentleman who hasn’t a care in the whole wide world and a bespectacled young lady of twenty years in a quaint tearoom that served the best of breakfasts (according to Cornelius, who personally vouched for Hadley’s & Hall’s) was all too strange to look at, especially when that said young lady was animatedly talking to the both of them bilingually. It was as if she was a tiny interpreter for the both of them – she interpreted Cornelius’s words for Araya, and vice versa. Finally, after a healthy bit of confusion, Aozaki Tōko stopped in the middle of walking, looked at the both of them and heaved a great sigh.

  She barely even touched her long-awaited Eggs Benedict.

  “Araya,” Tōko said sternly in Japanese, “haven’t you ever thought of learning English?”

  Araya’s response was to clean his plate quietly before he drank his Darjeeling.

  “I mean to take up further texts soon,” he said. “I can see that it’s inconvenient for you to play interpreter between me and Cornelius Alba, Aozaki.”

  “No, no, that’s no good,” she said. “You’ll never learn English that way. You’re in London now – we’re not in Japan anymore, and it’s going to be hard for you to learn lessons that way. You won’t even understand a thing that the professors will be saying, and talking to me won’t be any comfort, I can assure you. We’re going to get you a nice, good book, and you’re going to learn. Understand?”

  The monk only looked at the young lady and gave a resigned grunt.

  “I barely even touched my food,” Tōko continued, this time speaking English to Cornelius, “because I’m so busy interpreting for the both of you. How about trying to learn Japanese, Cornelius? I’m sure that it’ll be an experience.”

  Cornelius looked up from eating his sandwiches and hummed. “Well, indeed, that’s delightful, Touko! Was that what you were saying to Araya just now?”

  “Saying what?” she asked.

  “ _’Eigo,’_ ” Cornelius parroted. “That’s Japanese for ‘English,’ isn’t it? _‘Eigo.’_ ”

  “That’s a good start, at least,” she smiled. “A few words here and there are good, aren’t they?” A sudden switch in Japanese. “Do you know at least a few English words to start?”

  Araya inclined his head to regard her slightly, and then looked as if he was deep in thought. In a deep voice, he mouthed out the few words that he knew in English, as per to her request.

  “…Sainsbury. Museum. Clock Tower. Hospital. Temple,” he said, but he placed extra emphasis on a few oddly placed syllables. Sainsbury became **‘SA** ins **BU** ry,’ museum became ‘mu **SE** u **M,’** Clock Tower had ‘clock’ sounding like ‘glock,’ and Araya completely butchered the word ‘temple.’

  It was close enough.

  “I’m buying some books along with the postcards,” Tōko decided. She cut her first slice of eggs, popped it into her mouth and sighed. It was indeed a fine plate of eggs, but her dish had gone cold, so it tasted incredibly soggy. “For the both of you, mind. But especially for Araya – he needs to master English fast, otherwise he’ll be completely behind. Shouldn’t there be some spell to make someone master a language, Cornelius?”

  “Not as much as I know,” Cornelius said pensively. “Otherwise, we’d all be mastering languages in the drop of a hat, my dear. Eat up, yes? There’s a Barnes and Noble nearby, in which you can get your postcards and books, and I believe that we’re all free enough to take a few pictures of landmarks for your sister, yes?”

  This time, he looked at Araya and tried to get his point across without disturbing the girl.

 _“…Jikan,”_ Cornelius said, _“…Jikan_ okay?”

  It was Araya’s turn to look perplexed.

  _“Watashi tachi_ …free time? _Ima koso?”_ Cornelius tried again.

  “…I have quite a bit of free time,” Araya said in perfect English.

 

 

  Tōko choked on her breakfast.

 

 

  “Basic sentences! _Basic sentences!_ You’re _pulling_ my _leg!”_ she bemoaned in Barnes and Noble. “I should just buy you the Oxford dictionary and _hit_ you with it!”

  In the brightly lit bookstore, Tōko hissed at Araya at the Foreign Languages section, in where they were searching for books that not only Tōko needed, but for the other two to read as well. Cornelius made himself scarce at the customer service counter to look for books pertaining to archaeology, as if to see whether there were newer books that weren’t available in the British Museum’s Reading Room, and Araya kept his signature indifferent look on his face at Tōko’s outburst.

  “I have not spoken Japanese in a long time,” he said to her in the tongue that he was most comfortable in. “I wanted to see if after all those years, I had forgotten to speak it.”

  “Well, what have you been doing all those years?!” Tōko exclaimed. “For your information, I was holed up in nothing but four walls all my life! I didn’t forget anything, if you ask me! You must be laughing at me interpreting needlessly about whatever Cornelius said to you, weren’t you?!”

  “I did not laugh,” he said simply.

  The young lady made a few enraged noises, and then forced herself to pick out a dictionary.

  “If you’re going to forget speaking Japanese,” she said, “then you’d better keep talking to me to not lose touch. I’m not going to be nice and get you a copy of _Genji Monogatari_ so that you can brush up on being archaic again, for the record.” She piled up books in her arms – the latest edition of the Oxford dictionary, a Japanese phrasebook from Berlitz for Cornelius and a German dictionary for herself. “Araya Sōren, just because I’m young, that doesn’t mean I’m dense.”

  Araya simply plucked the books from her arms, much to her surprise. “No one ever implied that you were dense, Aozaki. You are still young, thus you are indulging in novelties before the actual work begins. It does not warrant any shame or disapproval.”

  “I’m _not_ indulging in novelties!” she insisted. Her face was already burning with her temper flaring up. “I’m learning German for Runes!”

  At that, Araya cocked an eyebrow. “Runes?”

  “Runes,” she nodded. “I wanted to try other departments like Spiritual Evocation or Creation, but I thought that I could just focus on something that I’m not good at for once. I’m very poor in combat – I can barely hold myself in a run.”

  “I have heard that there will be quite a bit of trouble when it comes to the study,” Araya said as he walked past a few shelves of books. Tōko followed beside him, looking around for any signs of postcard racks. “Runes are against Witchcraft.”

  “Witchcraft isn’t even taught very well in the Clock Tower, I’ve heard…” she said pensively. “But it’s something I want to try. We’ll be working together in the Department of Universal Research at the faculty of Astaire, so we’ll be a bit good there, I hope. It sounds broad enough to the point where we hopefully won’t be victimized too much. So even if Runes isn’t popular, I won’t be noticed so much.”

  “You won’t be noticed too much, you say,” Araya said. “Is that truly what you want?”

  “What…”

  It wasn’t only what Araya said that took her aback, but it was the way he said it. The way he said it had an eerily compelling manner to it, as if he was forcing her mind to rethink what she had just said. _You won’t be noticed too much, you say. Is that truly what you want?_ The question echoed, drummed, _throbbed_ in her head so much to the point where it almost hurt, and she could only stare at him in response.

  “Touko dear!” Cornelius waved, prompting the both of them to look at him at the counter. He stood right beside the postcard rack, all beautifully stacked with postcards of various pictures of London’s landmarks. “I’ve found your postcards!”

 

 

  Pictures were taken – various pictures.

  From within Bloomsbury to Camden, Tōko snapped pictures of various places in a fit of wanderlust. She let herself be delighted by Cornelius’s commentaries, stayed close to Araya so as to not be nicked at her pockets and went nearly everywhere she could go. Bloomsbury Square, Queen Square, the Camden Arts Centre, Keats’ House, Covent Garden, and as luck would have it, the famous London Bridge. She took so many pictures that she almost thought that the film would run out, and when she finally took a good picture of Big Ben, she heaved a satisfied sigh and nodded to herself.

   With a postcard from Lambert’s that had the picture of the House of Parliament on it in her hands, Tōko closed her eyes against the winter breeze, took a deep breath and looked at Cornelius speaking to Araya jovially. She went out not only for herself, but for the lingering love that was left for her sister, and already, she cursed herself all the more for it.

   She’ll send the postcard and the pictures, and with it, her last remaining affections.


	3. a seal of affirmation

**WINTER, DECEMBER 13 & 15, 1989**   
**POST OFFICE | CLOCK TOWER, BRITISH MUSEUM**   
**BLOOMSBURY, LONDON, ENGLAND**

 

  _‘Dear Aoko,’_ began the words on the postcard.

 Tōko half-wondered how long would the postcard reach Japan, much less Misaki Town, and to be precise and careful, she wrote down the address to Aoko’s school both in English and Japanese. The words: _‘Addressed to the Student Council President, Aozaki Aoko’_ was written in cursive at the English bit of the address, and Tōko took the time to reread what she wrote, accompanied with the processed pictures that were taken the day before. If there was one thing that was for sure, she wasn’t about to send the postcard to their grandfather’s – the old coot. She was sure that Aoko would up and tell Alice about it as well; crow about it, if she liked, but a postcard was all it took to convey whatever that was unsaid to her _beloved_ little sister who only knew how to blow up things to save her life.

_I got your message, and I’m still angry with you. I’ve taken the liberty to take pictures of London as you wanted. They’re nice, aren’t they? I’m not sure when I’ll ever want to speak to you again without feeling sick in my stomach._

  Probably, those were the unspoken words that she had for Aoko. The postcard obviously didn’t have any of those words written on its lines.

  Aoko must’ve thought that Tōko ran away to some fantastical magic school and wanted to know every single thing about it. That could’ve been some information that their grandfather ought to have, but Tōko assumed that their grandfather hardly even had the time or intention to sit down, have a nice cup of tea and tell Aoko all about the Mage’s Association at great length. Witches on brooms and wizards with robes – now that’s a sight, certainly, had Tōko not realized that flying on a broom was nearly close to impossible in itself.

  With a good press of her thumb on the stamp, Tōko submitted the envelope and walked out of the post office before she tugged her coat closer to her. Araya waited outside – had he decided to wait inside, it would’ve been quite a sight to see someone so imposing sitting at the waiting chairs.

  “Sorry,” she said, lapsing into Japanese. It was odd as to how it gave her even the slightest bit of calm to speak in her mother tongue. “Did I take long?”

  “No,” he said. “Compared to Alba, who’s over there, you were quite fast.”

  “He’s still over there?” she sighed. They both looked over at an antique shop – it was apparently owned by someone whom the Alba family knew very well, and the proprietor had once studied in the Clock Tower as well. “What on earth is he looking for? We’re supposed to look over at the department today – Cornelius promised.”

  “It is not the only thing he went there for,” Araya noted, and the two of them looked at the quaint shop from a distance. “A few other mages entered the establishment. I presume they might be having a conversation or two.”

  Indeed, it was to be expected. Someone of Cornelius Alba’s station would definitely have his share of acquaintances and friends. For someone like Tōko, who entered the Association just because she had lost what she deserved, even the Aozaki name wouldn’t garner her much of a presence, nor friends for that matter. For someone like Araya, even worse – he was a lone wolf who knew nobody, and in which nobody knew him.

  “Maybe we should wait out here,” she quietly said in resignation.

  Araya merely kept his silence.

  But as soon as she said that, Cornelius walked out, laughter and all. His company, all men and women his age or younger – or some a little older – walked out as well, mirroring his very expressions as if they had made a wonderfully long-awaited reunion. It could’ve very well been the case; to Tōko, they seemed to be esteemed people of the Association, and with a bit of flair, he waved goodbye to them with a gloved hand before walking over to Araya and Tōko.

  “Dear me, I’m sorry for the wait!” Cornelius laughed. “Those were old friends from my days. I’ve gotten what I’ve needed right here, and I presume that you’ve sent off that lovely postcard already, Touko?”

  “I have,” she smiled. “Who are they?”

  “Ah, them,” he said. “They’re former Enforcers, my dear. Came to say hello and the like. Previously, I was in a different department – I was in the Creation department, run by the Valuay family, but it was only a short stint of three months.”

  “Creation. Had you any use for the knowledge, Alba?” Araya asked.

  “I once had great dreams,” Cornelius grinned, “to be the greatest puppeteer. Still do, actually, but more important things called out to me instead. I know I’ll definitely shine in our new department, and I’m _very_ optimistic for the future. A lesson to learn, my dear Touko, Araya.”

  “The greatest puppeteer?” Tōko blinked, suddenly very much reminded of Kuonji Alice from back home. “But you were an Enforcer-“

  “I’m an artist by nature, not a bounty hunter,” Cornelius sighed dramatically. “Sure, I have the skills, but the interest wasn’t there. Only a sadist would love that job. But you know, when duty called, it was a sense of pride somewhat.”

  Araya nodded. “Do not cast away your acquaintances for our sakes, Alba.”

  “Oh no!” Cornelius denied vehemently. “No, no, _no!_ _Cast away?_ Don’t you _ever_ think that way, Araya! And certainly not you either, Touko – from the day we met, we’ve already become fast friends.”

  “But we’re not very popular,” Tōko said dismally. “The Aozaki family’s almost gone extinct with magic, and my grandfather’s an old nutcase. The Araya family…”

  She looked over at Araya, who didn’t seem to mind whatever she might say next.

  “…I admit I don’t know a _thing_ about it,” she concluded. “We’d only look bad on you, Cornelius.”

  Cornelius shook his head, tutted about and smiled. “It’s true that the Association values bloodlines, and of course mine is no slouch, but you needn’t worry about the prospect of _‘wheedling’_ up to me, so to say. _I_ sought the two of you out, not vice versa.”

  “So it’s really alright?” she asked.

  “It’s really alright,” Cornelius nodded. “But I’ve recently found out from my friends earlier that there’s _one_ thing that’s not alright at the moment, and that’s something we can’t change.”

  Araya looked over at Cornelius’s darkened expression.

  “…And what could that be?” he asked the blond-haired man.

 

 

  The department of Universal Research is a department that boasts a lot of potential, just from the name alone.

  It was to be the department that Tōko, Cornelius and Araya were to research in, as well as their home department away from any supplementary classes that they wish to take. Cornelius had wanted to visit it after a long period of time away from the Association, given that he was rather young when he entered and left. During his days as an Enforcer, things were stricter and there was a strict no-nonsense policy about despite the lack of a written rule, thus during the current times, he had hoped that things would be a little livelier.

  Tōko appeared to think the same way; she had hoped that things would be a bit brighter. She certainly didn’t expect to have two seniors as her first friends in the Mage’s Association, but one couldn’t really tell upon looking at Cornelius. Araya could’ve been much older than the both of them combined, but she did think that she may have had a misconception regarding the age group in the field of magic studies. She was thinking more along the lines of people her age, people the age of the students back in Reien, or people her sister’s age, but to her horror, when she had asked Cornelius yesterday about who was the youngest around, he answered in a very matter-of-fact way:

 _‘Why,_ you _are, Touko. Well, by a few months, I think – the Edelfelts have a son who’s at least three months older than you.’_

  The thing that was not alright was that when the three of them arrived at Rocks Road, it was indeed as Cornelius feared. _It was not alright,_ in his words, to have Rocks Road being a place that was horribly barren. There was a staggering lack of any human presence, but a strangely abundant amount of rocks, true to its name. Old buildings were clumped up together, dead, leafless trees stood oddly about – the whole place looked even more depressing during the winter. Tōko blinked, looked around, and sandwiched between the two, she finally found a few words from somewhere after being rendered quite speechless.

  “…This is…” she attempted. “…This is… _um_ …lovely…”

  “A place dedicated entirely for research, yes, Alba?” Araya asked.

  “Yes,” Cornelius frowned, “but it looks like they’d prefer to shut themselves in. Bloody hell, this is like a ghost town – I knew they’d be distant, but not to this extent…I couldn’t believe it when I checked again with the Barthomelois…absolutely atrocious…”

  “It looks fine,” Araya said in a quiet bit of decisiveness, surprising both Tōko and Cornelius. “I see no reason for complaints.”

  “Oh, that’s right,” Cornelius said, “only a person like _you_ would love the place…”

  “What happened to this place?” Tōko asked, still shocked. “Why isn’t anyone here? We’ve been to other departments and they’re not so…so…”

  “Isolated,” Araya put in.

  “Isolated!” Tōko exclaimed.

  Cornelius gave a small _‘tsk!’_ of irritation and gave the place another look-around. His long ponytail swished as he did so, and he kept his gloved hands in the pockets of his slacks. “It’s always been isolated, so to say. There’s nothing here. It’s known for being the weakness of the entire Association – no politics come in, no politics go out. If you want a fight, it won’t be here. We’ll be pacifists by the end of our research.”

  The tone that Cornelius had didn’t seem to hold much hope for the last sentence. Tōko assumed that due to his history as an Enforcer, being a pacifist wasn’t in his dictionary.

  “All the more to concentrate for our ends,” Araya noted. He nodded his head once, and it looked so strangely sage-like that she couldn’t help but think he must’ve seen too much, yet had the thirst for learning even so. The beads around his neck implied that he must’ve had ties to some Buddhist temple, but she didn’t ask him about it, much less speak to him much throughout her three days of knowing him.

  “So…we’ll be holed up here?” Tōko tentatively asked. “Home base, _here?”_

  “Seems like,” Cornelius said dourly. “And the worst part is that nothing will be done about the place.”

 

 

  For once in days, Tōko was left to her own devices, at least for lunch.

  Cornelius, in a cross fit, had apparently excused himself to speak to the people of the department, implying that he had some degree of power to voice out whatever complaints and opinions that he had for the entire affair. Araya went to the department itself alone for a while, claimed that he wasn’t hungry and left the young lady all to herself at the lunch hall of the Association. It was crowded with students and mages studying and talking, and Tōko looked at what she bought for lunch for the umpteenth time.

  Triangular-cut sandwiches. Spicy chicken with wild rocket.

  She cheered herself up – it wasn’t that she was going to be holed up there like a hermit for the rest of her school years. It wasn’t that she was going to study archaeology all by itself; she would be studying other things too in other departments, and then she could make her choice on whether she wanted to change departments or not. She ate a bit of her sandwich and pondered on something that Cornelius said in particular: becoming the greatest puppeteer.

  _But what on earth was so special about puppetry?_   Tōko remembered despising Alice’s puppets – the Tweedles, something from Alice in Wonderland. Those two fat twins that did nothing but annoy the Alice in the book; Tōko honestly wondered what on earth did someone like Kuonji Alice see in creating them. And all those confusing departments – what on earth are they?

  On another topic, Tōko refocused her thoughts on the Clock Tower in general. The place wasn’t anything like the Workshop in Misaki Town, and what she could do couldn’t even hold a candle to what the mages could do here. Winking and making a tornado could be seen as child’s play in the Mage’s Association, and Tōko adjusted her glasses before sighing.

  Already, she felt homesick.

  “Eating all alone?” came a voice from beside Tōko, and she almost gasped in surprise. She looked over as to who gave her that sudden fright only to see a young man with a smile on his face. He looked a little older than her, but not as old as Alba or Araya, and his short, red hair stuck out quite a bit. His smile was warm, and she could only blink and ask the obvious.

  “…W-Who…?”

  “Ah, sorry for surprising you. I’m Bram Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri,” he introduced himself. “I heard that there were new additions to the Archaeology Department, and that one’s a former Enforcer, one’s a complete stranger and one’s from the Aozaki family. You must be the third on the list, yes? From Japan?”

  Tōko found herself quite boggled at his name.

  “Y-Yes,” she stammered. “T-Tōko Aozaki.”

  “Touko,” Sophia-Ri nodded. “That’s easy to remember. You can just call me Bram; my father’s the head of the Department of Spiritual Evocation, and they expect me to inherit the baton. I hope you’ll like it here in England – in my case, I’m kind of bored for staying here so long…”

  “It’s quite different for me,” she said as she managed a smile. “I’ve always wanted to leave Japan for the longest time.”

  “Huh? Why? I’ve always thought of Japan as a nice place,” he said.

  Tōko bit her lip. “Personal reasons.”

  “I won’t delve into it then,” Bram nodded. “In any case, I’m sure that it’s nothing new to all the cases of other families in the Association. There’s a lot worse than sibling feuds and intermarriages, that’s for sure-“

 _“Intermarriages?!”_ Tōko gasped.

  Bram nodded.

  “Yes, you didn’t know? There are some families that-“

  “Isn’t that _illegal?!”_ she exclaimed incredulously.

  “It is,” he sighed, “but it’s not uncommon here. The famous families – the Einzberns, the Edelfelts, the Tohsakas, the El-Mellois…you name them. They all have weird things going on that seem quite normal within these walls. Your family though, is quite different than most, right?”

  The young lady nodded. “…The Fifth,” she said, referring to the magic itself.

  “And you have a sister, right?” Bram asked.

  “Does _everyone_ know about Aoko?!” Tōko exasperatedly said, as if a switch had been flicked all too soon. “All she’s ever good for is blowing things up and destroying things. She can’t handle what she hasn’t prepared for! It’s _all_ about Aoko, isn’t it?!” All of a sudden, the floodgates of anger and jealousy poured out from her mouth, and she found that her face was getting red and hot at the very mention of her even having a sister in the first place. “What, do you think I’m a disgrace too?” she spat. “Go on, say it!”

  Bram blinked at her sudden outburst.

  “No, I-“

  _“Then_ what?!”

  “…Your spiel seems to mean something else than what is being said,” Bram said honestly with a small chuckle. “It almost sounds like you’re worried about _her_ than your family headship.”

  It was Tōko’s turn to be at a loss for words.

  “I mean, that’s a good thing,” Bram smiled. “I have a sister myself, but she’s going to be married to Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi soon. The marriage’s been planned for ages, and El-Melloi’s been waiting for the Holy Grail War for the longest time. Of course, that’ll mean my sister, Sola-Ui, would get more of the limelight, but I think it’s a good thing that you’re worried about your family more at this point. Not too many mages value family nowadays – I think it’s best that you keep that innocence about you.”

  “Now _look_ here,” Tōko insisted, “you don’t know-“

  Bram patted her shoulder and pointed at the exit of the hall with his thumb. The very same friendly smile was on his face, and Tōko didn’t know what to make of him at all.

  “Want a tour?” he asked. “I think you’ll need a lengthy introduction.”

 

 

  Walking with Bram Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri did make people turn heads, and all at once, Tōko felt so self-conscious that she wished she hadn’t accepted the invitation.

  “There are three factions here – political factions, so to say,” Bram explained as they walked past the Mineralogy Department, the faculty of Kishur. “The Barthomeloi faction, which belongs to the aristocrats, the Trambelio faction, which is the democracy faction and the Meluastea faction, which is the neutral faction. As of now, the Barthomelois run the show, but that still doesn’t mean that they’re the most important ones in the whole world. Mind you, Touko – the Einzberns haven’t stepped foot in the Association since centuries, and there are other families still shrouded in so much mystery.”

  “Must I join a faction?” Tōko asked.

  “If you don’t want to join one, or if you’re forced to join one, Meluastea would be your best bet,” Bram said. At that point, Tōko could almost hear the whispers of a few older students as they passed by them – indeed, there was no escaping the fact that being seen with someone from the Sophia-Ri family was no small matter. As if Bram could tell Tōko’s discomfort, he sighed and brazenly pointed a thumb over at the gossipers, shocking them to silence.

  “Ah, don’t mind them. They’re always like that. You’re a new face, so it’s only natural. Give a month or two, and you’ll adjust nicely. Your family’s quite famous, but because the Aozakis have been missing in action for quite a while, it takes time.”

  “According to my classes,” Tōko said, “I’ll be spending the daytimes in the General Fundamentals department, and then the evenings at the Archaeology department. So far, Archaeology will be my main department, but I’ve recently visited Rocks Road and it looks kind of…deserted, so to say.”

  “Welcome to the club, for the daytime,” Bram shrugged. “But honestly, can’t you reconsider other departments that don’t give people the creeps?” he joked. “Someone like you would definitely do well in my department or Mineralogy – you’ve got the energy and cheer!”

  _“Cheer?”_ Tōko laughed. “Me?”

  “Think about it,” he wheedled. “It’ll be cute if you can throw jewels around like the Tohsakas.”

  “Maybe later,” she played along.

  “There’s also one thing you have to know,” Bram said as he explained and walked on. “There are three things that you have to look out for: Gazamy the Wraith, Sealing Designations and Enforcers. The Sealing Designations are locked all the way down the Bottom of the Bridge, so you wouldn’t have to worry about those so long as you’re in the Association. The Enforcers are like the assassins of wayward mages – be careful so as to not lose your footing. As for Gazamy, I don’t even dare know what Gazamy is, so I’m not one to talk.”

  “Cornelius was an Enforcer before,” Tōko noted.

  “That doesn’t mean people liked him then,” Bram pointed out. “Only the highfalutin families get along with him, as well as other Enforcers. I’ve heard that he was quite the ruthless one. Oh, since we’ll be in touch quite a bit, you’re staying at Norwich’s, right? I’m currently lodging at Holborn.”

  “You don’t mind hanging around with me?” Tōko asked, surprised.

  “Well,” Bram said, “why not? There’s not too many like you around here, and believe me, it’s very refreshing. At least you’re not itching to strangle a few necks, unlike most in this place.”

 

 

  Two days later, a letter came in the mail. Tōko looked at the front of the envelope:

 

 _Ms. Aozaki Tōko_  
  Norwich Student Dormitories  
  Great Russell Street  
  London, WC1B,  
  United Kingdom

 

  Tōko recognized the handwriting well; it was from none other than Kuonji Alice. From the looks of the sender’s address, it seemed that Alice wrote it from her school, and in the quiet confines of her room, she tore open the envelope carefully and read the letter.

 

_Dear Tōko,_

_I’m writing to see if everything’s alright, at least. Aoko’s worried since the day you broke ties and left, and I understand that she left you a voice message a few days ago. You didn’t answer, so she got even more worried and tried to write you something, but I told her that it’d be best if I wrote instead._

_I too was worried when you left, truth be told. I didn’t say much, because I knew that I couldn’t change your mind. Of all the years we’ve spent knowing each other, I would know you that much. You wouldn’t spare a thought, but I don’t blame you for that – that’s just how you are. The thing that bothered me the most was that you left without a word, and a simple ‘I’m leaving, goodbye,’ doesn’t really count as closure. Your anger isn’t even towards Aoko, I know that._

_From my words, I hope you understand that although I am trying my best to be resigned over the whole thing, I hope that you wouldn’t deliver a closure as an ultimatum._

_I don’t care about what you think about Aoko, or whether you want to protect her or kill her. There’s something about you that most people can’t put their finger on, and that’s what enabled you to understand me far better than anyone else. You’re a monster, Tōko. That’s why you’re my only friend, so as I write this letter, it’s not for Aoko’s sake, it’s for mine._

_For my sake, comfort me with the fact that you won’t disappear from my life._

_Please write back._

_Sincerely,  
  Alice._

 

  The more Tōko read it, the more she couldn’t understand. Alice wasn’t the type to write a letter like that, but everything about it was clearly from Alice. The handwriting was Alice’s, the choice of words was definitely from Alice, and yet, it was so emotional that the bespectacled girl could hardly believe the contents of the letter. She put the letter on the table, closed her eyes and sighed.

  _No ties,_ she thought. _I don’t want any more ties. It has nothing to do with Aoko or Alice._

  She would make sure that she would not be missed. If Aoko and Alice could find it in their hearts to hate her, then even better. She had to leave, and she has to do what she has to do in the Mage’s Association. If the postcard she sent to Aoko would be of any consolation, then it would be the most she could do to comfort Alice, so to say, until Christmas.

  Tōko opened her eyes and pressed her lips into a tight frown. Alice was right – she was a monster.

  In fact, since the day she left, she was sure that she was the worst one ever.


	4. mock frailty

**WINTER, DECEMBER 16, 1989**   
**CLOCK TOWER, BRITISH MUSEUM**   
**BLOOMSBURY, LONDON, ENGLAND**

 

  When Aozaki Tōko woke up from a rather long nap, she was never so happy to have woken up in her entire life.

  She leaned her back against the bed rest and her pillow, thinking about how hard it was to just wake up. The clock showed that it was midnight, and it was a good thing that she brushed her teeth and took a warm shower beforehand. She could very well go back to sleep at that point, but she was pretty sure that she didn’t want to dip her head back and not have it come down again. In the deep dream that she was in, she thought that she had woken up, but in truth, she hadn’t, and her head was stuck high up with no chances of ever being able to look down. The dream she was in didn’t permit her to leave until the curtains closed – it forced her to live it, and watch it to the very end.

  Tōko touched the sides of her head, then closed her eyes and touched her eyelids.

  Alice was the first to appear in her thoughts – Alice’s letter. She didn’t dare reread it again; it sounded too personal, too sincere. It was Alice pouring out her innermost feelings with those words, and she dared to write it as if Tōko’s departure affected her more than anything. On one hand, Tōko was furious – _how_ dare _she?_ On the other, she was confused.

  Outside, the snow was heavy.

  As Tōko got out of bed clad in her night-gown, she put a dressing gown over herself to shield herself from the cold and tied her hair into a loose side plait. The voices of the choir at Reien resounded in her mind as she wondered whether to leave her room and do her fair share of exploring around, and at that, she nodded to herself. It was chilly, it was midnight and there were no disturbances, unless there were mages patrolling for the night to see if there were going to be any wayward students before the start of term. She needed time to think away from her ties in Japan anyways; she built up too many relationships, and to shed them off was proving to be quite hard.

  “Alright then,” Tōko said. “I’m off.”

 

 

**_“SOWILO!”_ **

  The Art was cast for a very minor purpose – a fire to keep her warm. With swift movements from Tōko’s right index finger to write the Runes, a small fire lit up and floated right in front of her. She did think of bringing a flashlight, but the one that she had was in Japan and she didn’t really get around to thinking that she needed a flashlight in the first place. Right then, she saw that she probably would need one – a very good one – after all.

  There was a way from the dormitory to the Clock Tower, thus she followed the snowy path in the night with only the small fire as her guide. Her orange overcoat and her boots did keep her plenty warm, but it was a mistake to go about still wearing a night-gown underneath. The buildings looked older and sadder in the night, with the darkness further assuming the appearance of age upon the stones and bricks that made each premise. The streetlights were dimly lit, and as Tōko exhaled, she could see her own breath.

  In front of a door, she placed her hand on it – the recognition of a student in the Clock Tower – and slowly, it opened with a small creak.

  Shaking the flame off, the Art was dispersed, and once again she was in the warm confines of indoors. She realized that things looked a lot clearer to her in the night, possibly because of how solitary things seemed to be, and she felt a certain degree of freedom from nearly everything that she had lived through. When Tōko looked around, she realized that she was just inches from the reading room, and she did wonder whether it was open or not.

  The whole place reeked of ancient times, and when she opened the door to the reading room, her breath hitched.

  Above her was a well-designed oculus on the ceiling, and the entire room was circular, dome-like, with windows at every turn. The bookshelves were abundant with books, and desks were provided for each reader who wished to partake in the knowledge that it offered. It boasted history and it enticed every wandering mage to come, come, come and learn, and all at once, Tōko was utterly bewitched.

  “This is…” she breathed, and then she saw someone from the corner of her eye. It was Araya, who was reading at a far corner.

  One step forward caused him to look up from his reading, but the way he did it was so slow and natural that it didn’t seem as if he was alarmed at all. If he was doing something unseemly, he did not show the telltale signs of being caught in the act. Araya looked at Tōko, who was smiling at him as she took some time to get a few random books before sitting right at the desk beside his.

  “It’s late,” she said in their mother tongue. “What are you doing here?”

  “I could very well ask you the same, Aozaki,” he said quietly.

  “I guess it’s a good time to read and unwind,” she mused. “I couldn’t stand being in my room at all. I had to walk around.”

  “In that?” Araya asked, referring to her underdressed state. “That’s not very good against the night chills.”

  “It’s just a short walk,” Tōko reassured him. “I’m not going to die of cold anytime soon. I casted a Rune on the way here to keep myself warm a little, as well as to guide the way. What about you?”

  “I never left,” Araya said.

  “Since morning?!” she exclaimed.

  “Since the evening. I spent time in the Department of Universal Research with Alba. He was wondering where you were.”

  Tōko flipped open a book and made sure it was neatly opened at the preface, which usually tells more about the author’s thoughts more than whatever was written in its contents. In her opinion, a book is still unread if people don’t even read what year the book has been published for good measure. Araya went back to his reading, but Tōko began to speak again.

  “Hey, Araya,” she said.

  “Hm?” came the sound.

  “…Different mages come here for different goals, and whether they are known or not, they choose to come here anyways to get what they want. They have some kind of vision to achieve, and although some of them just come for fun, I don’t believe that it’s the same for you. So Araya…what exactly is your path?”

  Truth be told, Tōko herself was surprised that she had asked such a question. _What exactly is your path?_ Araya looked at her and sighed softly – it was strangely comforting, and after a pause, he answered.

  “To reach the Root.”

  The bespectacled girl looked at him in surprise.

  “…You too, like everyone else?”

  “As is everyone else,” he said.

  “Have you found the means?” Tōko asked, a little more animated. “For one with many years such as yourself-“

  “I have not,” Araya said with a hint of a dismal tone in his voice. “As is everyone else, the goal is the Root. Your family has found a way to the Root, yet from what I can understand, it cannot be touched even with the magic that your family has. There are different methods, different ways – I am seeking to find the way of the absolute.”

  The very thought of the Root only served to make Tōko feel bitter. “My grandfather sealed it off. I don’t understand why.”

  “That does not mean you should stop pursuing it, Aozaki.”

  Her widened eyes looked as if she could bore a hole in Araya, with the way she stared at him.

  “It won’t be foolish?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “You think I can do it?” she asked again.

  “Yes. And I will be your enemy for a common goal,” Araya said. His voice was full of quiet authority, as if he was invoking a hidden destiny – _her_ hidden destiny. “The burning desire within you to find the path to the Root is there. Do not ignore it. You need not pretend, Aozaki.”

  Araya’s words resonated in Tōko’s head, so much so to the point where each word became akin to consecutive heartbeats. In the wide reading room, there was only him and her, and although she was bundled up with a single, sure layer that was her overcoat, she could feel the chills running down her spine. The world became eerily still, and yet, the only thing that made sense was Araya’s words. They drummed in her mind and compelled her to realize that hidden potential – whatever he saw, she knew he was right. Pretending – that’s _exactly_ what she was doing!

  Alice’s words rang again in her mind: _‘You’re a monster, Tōko.’_

And yet, even knowing that she was, she didn’t want to believe it.

 

 

  The walk back to the Norwich dormitory was quiet.

  Having Araya walk back with her seemed comforting and disconcerting at the same time, but it was better than being left to her own thoughts. Even though Araya only served to put more uncertainties in her mind, at least those uncertainties were far better to think about than her business back in Japan. They were important things to think about – what Araya said – and she walked beside the black-clad man in the snow.

  “I’m sorry that you had to walk me back,” Tōko said. “I even disturbed your reading.”

  Araya’s only response was to shake his head.

  “So how was the department?” she asked, trying to make small talk. Her fingers were so cold that she balled them into fists inside her overcoat pockets. “I hope it’s not as empty inside than outside.”

  “I could only reach the front,” Araya said. “Most of the members were not present due to Alba’s interference. When Alba returned, they spoke at great length about the solitary nature of the department, which Alba does not seem to favour.”

  “I think the both of you will get along well,” Tōko teased.

  “I can hardly keep up with his words, Aozaki,” Araya said, having caught on her teasing nature.

  “Well, you can learn,” she cheekily said. “There’s always a first for everything.”

  Araya stopped in his steps, and at that, Tōko almost wondered whether her miniscule jab served to be a little too much for the man. Probably, Araya wasn’t the type to take a joke, and just when she was about to say something, Araya shifted his stance and beckoned Tōko to go behind him.

  “Stand behind,” he said.

  Tōko didn’t protest – she felt the same thing. What washed over the entire place was an energy so strong that it could not be concealed; it was as if whatever was there wanted to let them know that they were there, ready for some kind of confrontation. She stood a little behind Araya, who towered over her like a monolith, and she kept close to where his left arm was, which was extended to the left as if to shield her.

  “…I’ll go and trap it,” she said. Indeed, she felt scared, and the chills of the winter didn’t help, but adrenaline flowed in her veins as she said the first thing that came to mind.

  “Are you sure?” Araya asked, his voice low.

  “It’s the only way to draw whatever’s there out of here,” she remarked. “I have to provoke it out so that we can confront it. Any longer in this energy and I don’t think I can last in this cold too long.”

  Araya lowered his arm, and Tōko thrust her right hand forward. The surge of mana through her circuits rushed towards her hand, and without a word, a blast of red magical energy swept through the circumference of their surroundings. She waved her arm as she did so, and Araya stepped forward to extend his arm as well with a well-sounded:

**“SHUKU.”**

  The lorica weaved itself around Tōko’s Art, which served to be a circumferential trap for anything that was unfortunate enough to get caught in it. Araya’s spell connected to Tōko’s, and in a brilliant display of red with white entangling threads that reflected the natures of their Arts, a sickening, crackling sound could be heard from their left. Tōko’s spell was an offensive boundary, while Araya’s spell was solely on the offensive. They had caught their target well, but in a split second, the two neophytes realized at the same time that there was a counterattack headed towards them.

  “Look out!” Tōko exclaimed.

  Araya’s first instinct was to shield them both.

  **“FUGU. KONGŌ. DAKATSU,”** came Araya’s words, and at once, three defensive barriers surrounded the two of them. Tōko ran forward within the wards and reached out to identify the incoming counterattack, and at once, she realized that it was a _Gandr_ shot – more precisely, a _Finn_ shot. The shot flew towards Tōko, and inches away from where they stood, right at the outermost barrier, it disintegrated into nothing.

  At the same time, they noticed that the energy got significantly weaker.

  “Disperse your wards, Araya,” Tōko said as she shivered in the cold. “I’m going to see who it is. Hey, who’s out there?! If it’s a fight you want-“

  In the night, they heard fits of coughing, and after exchanging looks, it was Tōko who decided to go first. Araya stayed where he was, but he did not dispel the wards that he erected. He simply chose to widen the range of the wards in accordance to where Tōko ran, and it wasn’t very far – she chose to run towards the direction in where the Finn shot was fired. As she knelt by the snow-covered thicket, she was met with a great surprise.

  It was a boy no older than fourteen, coughing out blood. Blotches of blood stained the snow that he coughed on, and his brown hair messily covered his face.

  “Oh great…” Tōko groaned, “we _really_ did it this time…Hey, are you alright? Can you hear me? If you can hear me, nod your head – I’ve got you…”

  Her cold hands reached out to support his body and head, and the boy tried his hardest to stop coughing. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked at her, and he surrendered himself to lean against her in pure exhaustion. The boy’s defenses were down entirely, and Tōko kept him close to her in the chills of the night.

  Araya walked towards them and saw the situation for what it was.

  “…A young one such as him with such abnormal energy,” he said. “It does not sit well for the both of us, Aozaki.”

  “Still,” Tōko frowned as she looked up at Araya, “we’ve hurt a child without knowing. We’ve got to see if we can help him, and then we’ll have to explain ourselves in the morning.”

  The man said nothing in his silent disapproval, yet he acquiesced with a sigh.

  “…I understand what you mean,” the bespectacled young lady said. “I don’t like the feel of his energy either. It’s just…”

  Many a time, Tōko had heard of sermons preaching about spirits and those who were children of God – in the most superior sense. Reien was rife with Catholic traditions, and in the process, Tōko knew everything there was to it during her tenure there. As such, even though attending Mass tended to be so ritualistic that it almost became a habit every Sunday, it did give her quite a bit of sense to see if someone had that certain spirit that was agreeable or not, and upon recalling her memories about Reien, she had hoped that she and Araya were wrong.

  “…I just hope I’m wrong,” Tōko said as she spoke her mind.

  “Then we shall heal the boy,” Araya conceded, “and I shall see to it that you get some rest.”

  It was not the most agreeable way to spend the night, but it was an interesting night overall. Tōko got up and tried to pull the boy up as well, but the fact that she was too cold and too weak made Araya lift the boy up and heaved him on his broad back instead. The young lady dusted the snow off her night gown and adjusted her glasses before giving Araya a smile, and to her surprise, Araya extended a hand for her to take.

  She took it, and it was warm.

  “…Thank you for tonight, Araya,” Tōko said. “It was a pleasure fighting alongside you.”

  Araya nodded.

  “I greatly appreciated your cooperation as well, Aozaki.”


	5. the first Saturday

**WINTER, DECEMBER 16, 1989**  
CLOCK TOWER, BRITISH MUSEUM  
BLOOMSBURY, LONDON, ENGLAND

 

  Araya Sōren looked around the room that Tōko occupied and, seated on a dining chair, observed the young lady sleeping on the two-seat sofa with her arms curled up close to her and her legs nearly dangling at the side.

  As luck would have it, and to Tōko’s own surprise upon arriving at the Clock Tower days ago, she was granted a room to herself befitting her heritage as the eldest daughter of the Aozaki family – a privilege set for certain mages in terms of accommodation. Calling it a room would be a bit of an understatement; it looked like a studio apartment instead, and Tōko certainly kept it very neat. Two calendars sat on the desk – one for the current year and one for the next; Araya flipped through the new calendar that seemed to be a freebie from the British Museum, and he saw many dates being circled in red marker. Most of them were birthdays.

  The boy that they had attacked earlier occupied Tōko’s bed, and despite Araya’s bit of healing magic, his body was still quite frail. The boy’s chest slowly heaved up and down as he breathed, and on Tōko’s end, she stirred a little at the uncomfortable position that she had slept in all night.

  When she slowly came to, her eyes told her that it was 8:42 AM.

  “I took the liberty,” Araya’s low yet leveled voice came, and all at once, it nearly shocked Tōko awake, “to make some green tea. I saw that you had some powdered ones in the shelves.”

  Tōko’s only response was to look at the tea, then at Araya, and slump back onto the sofa.

  “I’ll drink it later…” she said lazily. “We’ve been up all night trying to fix this kid up…How’s he doing now?”

  “The danger had passed,” Araya confirmed. “You can check his condition yourself.”

  Tōko groaned, but heaved herself up anyways. Her body was so stiff that she could’ve been akin with a chopping board. “I’ll go get more towels…Let me just get my arms and legs back and see how the kid’s doing, and then we’ll go get breakfast…”

  Mornings never sat well with Tōko, but she went through enough of them to know how to set things up to make them better. She patted about on the floor to find her glasses, and after she put them on, she walked slowly to the kitchen – wobbled, to be exact – and gave a huge yawn without covering her mouth before turning on the tap to fill a bowl with warm water.

  “Did you even sleep?” she asked.

  “Sleep is not necessary,” Araya replied. “Many years of cultivation and meditation are enough to preserve and replenish energy when needed.”

  “Still, I don’t think it’s very comfortable on that wooden chair,” Tōko pointed out. “I appreciate the help, really, but I think you should take the day off today. You’re rooming with someone, right?”

  Araya nodded. “The person I am sharing a room with does not seem to talk much.”

  Tōko could somewhat understand why, given Araya’s presence.

  “At any case,” she said as she took some fresh towels, “today’s definitely going to be hell. Once we get this boy up, we’ll have to talk to someone in charge about him, and I don’t even know who’s in charge or who to properly go to…” She brought the bowl and the towels to her bed, looked at the boy and soaked a towel into the warm water before she put it on his head gently.

  The boy, still asleep, leaned his head against her hand and all at once, Tōko was reminded of how she usually did this to Aoko back when they were younger. It was no wonder that she was a natural in taking care of sick people – being an elder sister brought many responsibilities, and among those was the responsibility of being a watchman over a feverish younger sister who wouldn’t eat her food or dress herself due to feeling too sick to do any of those things. When Tōko replaced the towel with a new one, she was reminded of doing the same to Aoko during a particularly nasty mixture of fever and food poisoning in elementary school.

  “It was quite hard trying to heal him, wasn’t it?” she asked Araya. “I don’t know why, but your magic doesn’t seem to work very well on him. You were having a bit of a hard time last night, so we had to go manual.”

  “Like I said, Aozaki,” Araya said, “there is something about the boy.”

  “What’s your hunch?” Tōko asked. “When you healed me last night, it was one of the best works I’ve ever seen. There was none of those painful reattachments or anything…so why was it so hard to do the same on the boy?”

  Araya got up and gave Tōko her tea, to which she thanked him and drank. “As you can see, Aozaki, I am faithful to the teachings of Buddha. That is why, when I healed you, you were in complete peace. It is with the many years of cultivation and wandering that I can have a sense of knowing spirits that are benevolent and spirits that are not. Of this, I am sure that you can understand, having come from the same motherland, that I would be perceptive to matters as such, and about the boy…”

  “You’re saying that he has a wrong spirit, of sorts?’

  “So to say.”

  Tōko looked at Araya with a look full of uncertainty, and she bit her lip. She didn’t want to say the first thing that came to her mind, but disbelief compelled her to speak.

  “…Do you think it’s a demonic spirit, Araya?” came the question.

  Araya looked at the boy, then at Tōko with a hard-pressed frown on his already severe features.

  “The boy is a walking curse, Aozaki.”

  A groan could be heard from the boy, and Tōko looked over to see if he was waking up. True to her expectations, he was, and he opened his eyes slowly to see Tōko’s anxious expression. With her hand still on his forehead, he snuggled a little more into Tōko’s covers and peeked over at her again to see if she was still looking at him.

  “Are you okay?” she asked gently in English. “Does it hurt?”

  He shook his head. His brown hair splayed about on Tōko’s pillow.

  “We didn’t know you were there last night,” Tōko explained. “We’re really sorry that we hurt you. I hope that you’re feeling a bit better – do you want anything to eat? I can make you something as long as I know how to make it…”

  “…I want jam toast,” the boy mumbled.

  It was almost incredibly hard to believe that a boy like that could possibly be a walking curse or some demon incarnate, but it was true that looks could very well be deceiving most of the time. Jam toast – of all things, the boy wants jam toast, and Tōko found the entire matter so jarring that it became a severe mismatch in her original perceptions. Probably, her youth and naïveté despite knowing that there were things in the world that weren’t all what they seem to be messed with her senses somewhat, thus to pair the boy with jam toast and a _Finn_ shot of that magnitude just didn’t seem to click properly.

  And then, the boy spoke up again, this time more confidently and clearly. He beamed at Tōko brightly, and for once, Tōko could see his mane of brown hair sticking out.

  “Oh wait, I forgot to introduce myself! I’m Lev Uvall! May I please have some jam toast?”

 

 

  Tōko didn’t even have jam in the fridge since she hated it so much.

  In fact, she didn’t really have anything much in the fridge, thus to accommodate the young boy’s – Lev’s – request for jam toast, she decided that a trip to the local supermarket was in order. After introductions and the suggestion from Tōko to go buy some food, Lev was excited enough to go to the supermarket to get groceries, but it was indeed quite awkward for Tōko to ask Araya if he wanted to come along. She had meant to get some Japanese ingredients – _shoyu, miso_ paste, and dried seaweed sheets anyways, but she never could find the time with all the introductions during her first few days in London.

  “Are you sure you’re warm enough, Lev?” Tōko asked for at least the fifth time in twenty minutes. She tucked his scarf once more and made sure it was snug around his neck, and the boy nodded obediently with the very same smile on his face.

  “I’m okay!” he said. His brown coat, winter boots, mufflers and his scarf were definitely more than enough to keep him warm for just a short trip to the supermarket, but the way Tōko fussed about made it seem like the morning snow was as bad as the night’s. “Miss Touko, really, I’m okay…!”

  “Just making sure,” she sighed. “We’ve dealt a very heavy blow at you last night, so I’m quite worried…I’m afraid the cold will do you more harm than good.”

  “Believe it or not, Miss Touko,” Lev insisted, “I’m very strong! If you still don’t believe me, you can remember my _Finn_ shot last night! A small trip to the supermarket won’t kill me.” He puffed out his chest in pride, quite literally, just so that he could prove his point.

  Aozaki Tōko did not look convinced.

  “…I’m _fourteen,_ Miss Touko,” the boy sighed. “I can take care of myself-“

  “Alright, alright, I give up,” Tōko laughed as she treaded carefully on the snow. “We’ll go to the supermarket first, then I’ll have to look around to see if there’s a place that sells Japanese ingredients. I haven’t had Japanese food in _days…”_

  “Doesn’t the supermarket have that?” Lev asked as he walked between Araya and Tōko past snow-covered buildings. They were already walking further away from the little town that the Mage’s Association had made centuries ago for the perusal of their fellow members, and as soon as they stepped out of the boundary that separated the world of mages and the normal world, Tōko kept her eye out for incoming traffic.

  “They only have local stuff,” she sniffed, “and by local, they’re not local to me. I heard that if you want to get other ingredients from other countries, they’ll sell them at hefty prices.”

  Araya looked over at Tōko and asked the most practical question of the day. “If that is so, Aozaki, are you sure you have enough to buy what you need for a breakfast of rice and _miso?_ ”

  “…Good point,” Tōko frowned. “I don’t really have much, but if I can bargain…I mean, I brought a hundred pounds with me, which I think should be alright for a week’s worth of groceries-”

  Lev looked at Tōko as if she’d gone mad.

  “A hundred pounds?” he blinked. “That’s so little!”

  _“Little?!”_ came the disbelieving exclamation from Tōko’s mouth – it was _her_ turn to look at Lev as if _he’d_ gone mad instead. “I was planning to save these hundred pounds and have it stretch for at least _two_ weeks! I don’t have much!” she complained. “I don’t really have much of an inheritance anyways!”

  Araya looked at Tōko in surprise for good reason. The Aozaki family was known for being the family who administers the greatest spiritual land in Japan, even though it was not very renowned compared to other prominent mage families. Spanning six whole generations, the family had declined in terms of producing suitable heirs to carry on the Art, but even so, Araya had thought that an inheritance would be kept for consideration. The Aozaki family was almost compared to the Matou family in terms of decline, but upon the news of Tōko’s birth, the once highly regarded Matous fell back staggeringly.

  “What?” Lev gasped, surprised. “Not much of an inheritance, Miss Touko?!”

  Tōko looked at both Lev and Araya and sighed.

  “Not much, I’m afraid,” she admitted. “I came to England very ill-prepared. I was thinking of getting a part-time job to make up for living expenses, but I haven’t even bought a single newspaper yet…The only place that I can think of working at is Harrods’s.”

  “Working will not give you much time for private research, Aozaki,” Araya said, sounding a little regretful. “And you, boy,” he said, looking at Lev, “what is your field of study?”

  “Huh?” Lev said.

  “You told us that you were enrolled in the Clock Tower,” the monk said.

  “Oh!” Lev nodded. “I’ll be at the Department of Universal Research-”

  “Ah, what a coincidence!” Tōko said as she clapped her hands together. “We’re studying there too – me, Araya and Cornelius. I guess with you coming in, I won’t be the youngest student anymore…That’s a relief.”

  The three of them ended up finding a supermarket not far away from the British Museum, and as Araya walked behind Lev and Tōko, Lev insisted on pushing the shopping cart. “You know, Miss Touko, Mr. Araya – there’s actually a lot more new students coming in this year, but I’ve only heard of the ones who stand out. They’re all geniuses or something; it’s as if the world’s making geniuses from thin air…they’re starting to sound not so rare anymore, you know?”

  “Geniuses?” Tōko asked. She looked at the items on sale at an aisle and saw that assorted cans of Heinz’s beans were being sold at knockdown prices. “Around your age, Lev?” 

  “Around yours, actually, Miss Touko,” Lev said pensively. “The geniuses that I’ve heard of enrolling here – well, I won’t call myself one, because I just studied very hard, and my family’s quite prominent at that – are you, that El-Melloi heir, and that Edelfelt heir too. The special one that came in was Mr. Araya – you don’t mind being quite singled out, do you, Mr. Araya…?”

  Araya didn’t seem to look as if he minded it too terribly. “I merely came to England for the increase of knowledge and wisdom. Status and name mean little to me.”

  Tōko remembered that the El-Melloi heir was to be married to Bram Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri’s younger sister, and at the memory of that fact, she also recalled that Bram complained about him to her not long ago. _‘Only 25 and he’s tooting his own horn so much – I swear, Touko, without_ my _family, do you even think that he can_ smell _the upcoming Holy Grail War? I think_ not. _Pompous little…’_

  “…and then the unexpected arrival was Mr. Cornelius Alba,” Lev finished. He took a jar of St. Dalfour’s strawberry jam and put it in the cart nice and proper. “You know, I saw him, Miss Touko!”

  “Saw Cornelius?”

  “He looked so different, according to my mother,” the boy said. “He had shorter hair, and he wore all black or something…She also said that he didn’t smile so much either. I think that’s how people change, so you know!”

  “That’s right,” Tōko agreed, half talking to herself and half talking to the two people who accompanied her. There was a certain expression on her face that seemed to be a mixture of regret and loathing, and Araya was quick to catch on despite choosing to hold his peace. “People change, Lev. Time changes people, and people change with time.”

  She stopped at the bread section, checked the expiry date and put a loaf into the cart.

  “But you know,” she said, finding a smile from somewhere, “there are people who simply don’t change because there’s something important that they have to do. It’s like…you know, people have a choice on whether they want to change or not. Sometimes it’s inevitable, sometimes it’s out of choice, Lev.”

  Lev was listening intently. “So Miss Touko,” he asked, “have _you_ changed?”

  The sudden curious question took her aback. Had she changed? And if so, in what aspect? The only thing that changed about her was her sudden sour feelings towards her younger sister, Aoko, but did that really change everything about her as a person? Did it change her personality, or if not that, did it change her mentality? It was such a broad question: _‘have you changed?’_

  “…I think I’m getting there,” was her eventual answer, “but I’m not sure if I like it.”

 

 

  After cooking up quite a feast for breakfast, Tōko looked around the kitchen and sighed.

  The best way to win someone over is through their stomach, and it was very true in the cases of both Lev Uvall and Araya Sōren. Jam toast was a piece of cake to make – put two pieces of bread in the toaster and have the person eating it slather jam all over the toast, but rice and _miso_ soup took a little more time. Tōko could’ve very well bought the instant _miso_ soup packets that Tama’s Market had, but despite it being more reasonable than the raw ingredients of spring onions, _miso_ paste and seaweed, her instincts told her that 10 packets for at least _25 pounds_ was being a little too ridiculous. She fed the both of them and had them help her with the dishes before they left to do their own respective businesses. Lev seemed to like Tōko a lot more after filling his stomach, and Araya even told her to have a productive day before he left.

  She _did_ want to have a productive Saturday, but there was the bed calling out to her from the far corner of her room. Her body still ached due to her incredibly horrid sleeping posture the night before, and the worst part was that the winter chills were doing nothing to remedy that. Tōko almost wished that she could’ve brought a _kotatsu_ to England – it would’ve saved her so much trouble, and she wouldn’t be thinking about getting a heating pad from tele-shopping. It’d only make her seem older than she already was, and she looked back and forth from the bed to the door.

  But just as she looked at the door, it was knocked thrice.

 _“Touko!”_ came a voice from behind it. “Are you in?”

  “Who’s that?” she asked, surprised that there would be someone who actually wanted to see her.

  “Your dose of daily news and plethora of information, Miss Aozaki!” came the playful answer. Tōko opened the door, saw none other than the smartly-dressed Bram Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri and chuckled at his smart remark.

  “Whatever am I going to _do_ with you?” she said, still chuckling. “I was about to go to sleep.”

  “At ten in the morning?” Bram blinked.

  “Didn’t sleep,” she sighed. “Something held me up all night.”

  “Word spread, alright,” Bram nodded, and Tōko eventually decided to walk out of her room. She locked the door behind her and Bram beckoned her to follow him down the stairs. “Souren Araya ran into me and Cornelius Alba and apparently, you’ve met the young Flauros boy?”

  “Who?” Tōko asked.

  “Lev Lainur Flauros,” he said. “That’s his name.”

  “He said his name was Lev Uvall though,” the young lady said, looking quite confused.

  “Oh, well,” the red-haired man shrugged as he opened the door to the exit of the dormitory. “But really, Touko – attacking anything that has a strong bit of magical energy? Honestly, what were you and Souren Araya thinking? Is that common among the both of you?” he asked, completely in disbelief.

  Tōko waved a hand in front of her own face. “Look, it’s either we attack first, or we get attacked first. Anyways, I _was_ sorry for it, and I even made him breakfast. Save!”

  “One of these days,” Bram said teasingly, “you should make me breakfast. I’ll get knocked out by you in dueling classes and you’ll have to be sorry enough to make me a nice bit of breakfast, yes?”

  “Then that’ll be at least 85 pounds, thank you,” Tōko said staunchly.

  “What?!”

  “My grocery costs!” she said. “What, did you think that breakfast is _free?”_

  Bram looked almost affronted, but Tōko could tell that it was all in jest. She was trying her hardest not to laugh as well. “But you made free breakfast for Souren Araya and Lev Flauros!”

  “That’s because Lev is a growing boy, and because both me and Araya wanted rice and soup. There you have it,” she grinned. “Don’t you know of buffets that charge full prices for adults, and half prices or free charges for children? It’s the same with the Aozaki cooking methods, Mr. Sophia-Ri – you either cough up the money for my upkeep, or starve.”

  “You drive an extremely hard bargain, Miss Aozaki!” he gasped.

  “If you want free food,” Tōko said, “I’m sure there are scores of girls who’d want to cook for you for free. If I had _that_ many guys _and_ girls coming after me the way they do with you, I’d be able to save _so_ much money…”

  “You sound as if you’re doing quite awful in financial matters,” Bram said, looking almost worried as they walked past the Department of Spiritual Evocation, which was the territory of the Sophia-Ri family. “I had thought that you’d be granted an inheritance…”

  “I wish,” the bespectacled young lady bemoaned. “I just hope that I’ll be able to find a good part-time job among courses. My visa does allow me for part-time work with a fixed number of hours per week, but well, you know…”

  “Speaking of part-time work,” Bram said, “you don’t really have to go outside to make a bit of money. One of the reasons why I wanted to see you today was because I needed to tell you a bit of news before term starts, which is that the dean of the Department of Summoning, Rocco Belfaban, will be presiding over the lessons in the Department of Universal Research from now on.”

  At that, Tōko arched an eyebrow in surprise. “Huh? What happened to the original instructor for our department?”

  “Had to do some work all the way over at Albania,” the red-haired man said. “Won’t come back in another year or two, according to my father. That also means that since the Department of Summoning is a subordinate organization of my family’s department, we’ll be seeing each other quite a lot,” he smiled. “And of course, regarding that part-time job, you can always work in different departments or get paid for your research. There’s always that, and you get paid a lot more than normal part-timers outside.”

  Tōko sighed in relief – things were actually going pretty smoothly for her so long as she just held on, and it was a good thing that she had made a few friends in the span of a few days. _It was the right move,_ she thought, _to come._ It was the right move to leave Japan after all – had she stayed, she would’ve stewed in her own jealousy and rotted with it. Running away, so to say, was far better than smiling or scowling at the state of affairs that happened in her hometown, and it also saved her a lot of face in the process.

  “That’s wonderful,” Tōko smiled. “Thank you, Bram.”

  “Stay close, please,” Bram said, a sudden hint of seriousness having found its way in his voice. It didn’t go unnoticed by Tōko, who looked at him in surprise over the sudden change of tone. “If possible, please be as close as possible to not only your department, but the Department of Spiritual Evocation. You’re popular as one of the geniuses newly enrolled in the Clock Tower, and things can go awfully wrong if you’re not careful.”

  “I think I’ll be fine; I just need to learn how everything runs around here, right?” Tōko asked.

  Bram shook his head.

  “When you’re gifted with something special,” he said, “things will naturally go _very_ wrong.”


End file.
